RPT-U.S. discovery of rogue GMO wheat raises concerns over controls

May 31, 2013|Reuters

By Carey Gillam and Julie Ingwersen

May 31 (Reuters) - For global consumers now on high alertover a rogue strain of genetically modified wheat found inOregon, the question is simple: How could this happen? For acadre of critics of biotech crops, the question is different:How could it not?

The questions arose after the U.S. Department of Agricultureannounced Wednesday that it was investigating the mysteriousappearance of experimental, unapproved genetically engineeredwheat plants on a farm in Oregon. The wheat was developed yearsago by Monsanto Co to tolerate its Roundup herbicide,but the world's largest seed company scrapped the project andended all field trials in 2004.

The incident joins a score of episodes in which biotechcrops have eluded efforts to segregate them from conventionalvarieties. But it marks the first time that a test strain ofwheat, which has no genetically modified varieties on themarket, has escaped the protocols set up by U.S. regulators tocontrol it.

"These requirements are leaky and there is just no doubtabout that. There is a fundamental problem with the system,"said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a scientist at the Union of ConcernedScientists who served on a biotech advisory subcommittee for theFood and Drug Administration from 2002 to 2005.

The discovery instantly roiled export markets, with Japancanceling a major shipment of wheat, a quick reminder of what isat stake - an $8 billion U.S. wheat export business.

Many fear the wheat most likely has been mixed in withconventional wheat for some time, but there are no validcommercial tests to verify whether wheat contains the biotechRoundup Ready gene.

"A lot of people are on high alert now," said Mike Flowers,a cereal specialist at Oregon State University. "We can't reallysay if it is or isn't in other fields. We don't know."

A month has passed since U.S. authorities first were alertedto the suspect plants in Oregon, yet it remains unclear how thestrain developed. Monsanto officials said it is likely thepresence of the Roundup Ready genetic trait in wheat supplies is"very limited." The company is conducting "a rigorousinvestigation" to find out how much, if any, wheat has beencontaminated by their biotech variety. U.S. regulators are alsoinvestigating.

Bob Zemetra, one of the Oregon State University wheatresearchers who first tested the mystery wheat when an unnamedfarmer mailed a plant sample, said there is no easy way toexplain the sudden appearance of the strain years after fieldtests ended.

Cross-pollination seems unlikely, Zemetra said, because thefield where the plants were discovered was growing winter wheat,while Monsanto had field tested spring wheat. There hadn't beenany test sites in the area since at least 2004, making itunlikely the new genetic strain would have been carried on thewind.

"I don't know that we are ever going to get a straightanswer, or a satisfactory answer, on how it got there," Zemetrasaid.

'RIGOROUS TESTING PROTOCOL'

Government records show Monsanto conducted at least 279field tests of herbicide-resistant wheat on over 4,000 acres inat least 16 states from 1994 until the company abandoned itsfield testing of wheat in 2004.

Zemetra participated in Monsanto wheat trials a decade ago,while working as a wheat breeder at the University of Idaho. When Monsanto decided to halt the testing, he said, the companyhad strict rules about handling test materials.

"Pretty much all that seed, and any program that was usingit, either buried it, burned it or shipped it back to Monsanto,as part of the instructions for doing the field testing," hesaid. "It was a very rigorous testing protocol."

Researchers were requested to watch the plots for"volunteer" growth for at least two years after conclusion ofthe tests, Zemetra added.

Zemetra first became aware of the wheat found in Oregon whena farmer brought in what he described as several isolated wheatplants that had emerged after he sprayed Roundup on a fallowfield in eastern Oregon. The farmer had last harvested a crop ofwhite winter wheat from the field in 2012.

A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in2008 highlighted several gaps in regulations designed to preventgenetically altered crops from escaping test plots.

The report's conclusions were based on USDA data that therewere 712 violations of its regulations from 2003 to 2007,including 98 that could lead to a possible release ofunauthorized crops.

The GAO study said the USDA lacked the resources to conductroutine testing on areas adjacent to the GMO crops. Instead, thereport found, the government relied on biotechnology companiesto voluntarily provide test results.

A 2005 report by the Office of Inspector General for theUSDA was critical of government oversight of field tests of GMOcrops. The report said there was a risk "that regulatedgenetically engineered organisms... will inadvertently persistin the environment before they are deemed safe to grow withoutregulation."